A few years ago, while on my journey to entrepreneurship, I found myself constantly running into roadblocks and stumbling over ways to train my brain to a new way of thinking…A new way of looking at life. This was one of the hardest things, at the time, for me to do and to look back on it, it has been one of the most life-altering journeys I’ve taken. To be honest, this wasn’t an inevitable mission; this was a purposeful rerouting that I undertook to begin to see life from an entrepreneurs’ vision and less of a consumer’s point of view.

Unknowingly, my first journey took me down the enlightening path of figuring out exactly, “Who am I?”. What was my natural emotional tendency? How did I react to certain situations? Once I found those answers, I then began to train my brain, sometimes painstakingly, to respond and look at the world in a whole new fashion. Although I started using this to launch my venture down the route of entrepreneurship, I soon started to evolve my way of thinking into other areas of my life. While I started by wanting to transform my mental business concept, I then began to alter how I saw life socially. How I interacted with people personally to improving my self-awareness from a leadership perspective. Although I wanted to change some ideas about how I thought, there were others things about me I merely just wanted to learn. Like was I an extroverted or an introvert? Am I a visual learner or a hands-on learner? Am I strong-willed and dive into things head first or do I approach things with a cautious and questioning mind? While these are the more simplistic characteristic we may learn early on this road can become more complex and enriching as we go.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious,

It will direct your life, and you will call it fate.”

-Carl Jung

As I describe some of the details of my journey, I invite you to try them out for yourself. If some of the links I provide are new to you, take the assessment yourself and tell me what you think. There is a variety of test you can take, some you have to pay for, and others are free. Learning more about how you are wired will be forever helpful. From how it affects you when working in groups, figuring out why your boss acts the way they do to helping you find a suitable partner or better understand the person you’re with now.

To start this journey,

Name five characteristics about yourself (Remember: think of the person you are, not who you’d like to be)

Here is a list of some to help you get started but feel free to venture away from this list if you don’t see your characteristic.

Adventurous Dependable Observant

Conscientious Cultured Dependable

Discreet Fair Fearless

Impartial Independent Optimistic

Intelligent Keen Gregarious

Persistent Capable Charming

Precise Confident Dutiful

Encouraging Reliable Exuberant

Helpful Humble Imaginative

Meticulous Trusting Valiant

Adaptable Charismatic Realistic

The path to self-understanding initially led to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The Myers & Briggs test identifies 4 out of 8 possible characteristics of your personality and puts you into 1 of 16 personality types. These eight characteristics are divided into four categories:

Favorite World- How they focus their attention or get their energy

Extraversion or Introversion
Information- How they perceive or take in information

Grit, as described by Angela Duckworth acclaimed author of “ Grit, The power of passion and Perseverance,” describes grit as the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals. Grit is measured based on 5 characteristics:

Courage

Conscientiousness: Achievement oriented vs. Dependable

Long-Term Goals and endurance: Follow Through

Resilience: Optimism, Confidence, and Creativity

Excellence vs. Perfection

Although grit is still being researched, it has been closely tied to long-term success and achievement aside from intelligence. With increased grit, we are sure to continue after an initial failure. In a tough situation, people with more grit have an increased chance of success due to the heighten five characteristics described above. Where do you fall on the test of grit?